Nameless: The Darkness Comes (6 page)

Chapter Ten

Before Seth even had time to respond, Reed Taylor was murmuring softly. He was so quiet that I couldn’t make out the words, but his tone sounded like he was politely asking for something. It was lovely.

I felt the presence step closer.
I started to shake my head.

“I don’t want it near me, Reed Taylor,” I said, but he quietly shushed me.

“You’re going to be all right. Let him do what needs to be done.”

“Who?” Seth asked, his head rocketing from Reed Taylor to me and back.
“There isn’t anybody here!”

“Yes.
There is.” Reed Taylor said it with easy conviction that Seth simply shut his mouth and held Lydia firmly.

I gasped as the presence ran its hand down my back.
It felt comfortably warm, not blazing hot like Reed Taylor’s hands had been. It hovered around the demonic Tracing.

“I know,” Reed Taylor said aloud.
“Please, just do your best.”

“Do I even want to know what’s going on?”
Seth was practically whining.

Reed Taylor ignored him. “Luna?
This is…
really
going to hurt.”

He wasn’t kidding.
Before the words were even fully out of his mouth, I had flipped on my back in agony, trying to keep the presence away. I didn’t want it to touch me, didn’t want anything to touch me. My heels and top of my head were still connected to the couch, but the rest of me had arched off. The sounds of my own screams were making me even more hysterical.

“Luna!
Reed, tell me what is going on! Tell me now!”

I didn’t hear Reed Taylor’s answer.
My nerves were on fire. Somebody was scraping a knife blade against my bones. I could feel it under my skin.

Lydia started to shriek, and Seth cast a last look over his shoulder before he fled with her outside.

Reed Taylor scooped me up into his arms and held me on the couch.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” he said, and rocked me like a baby. I squirmed and writhed and fought him with all of the strength I could. I felt my nails scratch against something, and I focused on that, on the feel of something firm underneath my hands, on anything but the fire consuming my body.

I felt something push at my soul, trying to find a soft spot where it could get in.

“No,” I gasped, and struggled harder. “Stop, no! Uninvited! Uninvited!”

“Are you done with her yet?
” Reed Taylor was trying hard to sound calm, but I could sense the fury was barely being reined in. I was practically climbing his body in terror. His muscles bunched with the effort of holding me down.

“Well, hurry it up!” he shrieked, and his shrieking made me shriek even more.
Honestly, I didn’t think it was possible. The holes in my back were being filled with chemicals. They burned, they burned, they burned.

And then it stopped.

“Finally,” Reed Taylor muttered. I flopped into his lap, exhausted. I was panting like I had just run all the way here from the docks. Reed Taylor smoothed my sweaty hair from my face. He had a row of bloody scratches on his cheek.

“How ar
e you, my lovely maniac?”

I was dying.
I was dead. My body had just been burned away to nothing. I truly doubted if I wanted to live, if living ever meant going through something like that again.

I looked into his concerned, green eyes.

“I sort of hate you a little right now.”

Reed Taylor laughed.

~

Yeah, so I was okay.
Better than okay, now that I was stuffing turkey sandwich into my face as fast as I could. My brother? Makes a killer sandwich. It’s worth coming back from death’s doorstep for.

“So tell me.
Who is that?” I asked between snarfs. Seriously. I felt like I hadn’t eaten in days. It had been at least four hours. And trust me, that’s more than long enough in my book.

“Who?”
Reed Taylor asked innocently, but I wasn’t buying it, not anymore.

I pointed at the presence,
which was hovering near my fridge. Whether looking at Lydia’s finger painting art or wishing we had crème Brule, I don’t know.

“That.”

Reed Taylor’s eyebrows lifted. “I thought you couldn’t see anything.”

I gulped down some milk.
“I can’t. It’s just a big…I don’t know. There’s something there, I can feel it. I can see its shadow. And I know it listens to me, yes it does,” I reprimanded, shaking my finger at it, “but it never says anything. It just sits there and…glares.”

“Glares?”

“Glowers. Stares. Stalks. I don’t know what it does, but it’s very rude.” I looked up at Seth. “Do we have any more cookies?”

His lips were pursed together.
He pulled some cookies out of the vegetable bin and tossed them onto my plate with a thump. Now I knew his cookie hiding place.

“Cookie?”
I asked Lydia, holding a piece out to her. She smiled and put it in her mouth.

Reed Taylor clapped Seth hard on the back.
Seth staggered.

“Sure you’re ready to hear this, Seth?” he asked.

Seth rolled his eyes to the ceiling, as if for divine help. Then he sat down at the table beside me. Good for him, showing that he was on my side. Go, Team Luna.

“Shoot,” he said.

Reed Taylor looked grim. He took a deep breath and the seriousness in his green eyes nearly stopped my heart.

“This is my angel,” he said, nodding at the presence. The presence shimmered somehow.

Seth and I both pushed our chairs back at the same time.

“Whatever,” Seth said, stalking out with Lydia.

“An angel?”
Was he mocking me? I’d never seen an angel. Never. I didn’t necessarily even believe in them. With angels came a whole bunch of other things that I didn’t want to think about. But I couldn’t deny that the presence was
something.

Reed
Taylor’s face stayed carefully neutral. “An angel. I would never, ever lie to you, Luna. I promise you.” It was taking all of his control to stay so calm, I could see it. But I was rattled.

“I told you about the demons in order to save you.
I wish I didn’t see them, you have no idea.
No
idea. But if you’re making up angels—”

“
Luna.”

I didn’t want this.
I wanted to know what the presence was, but this wasn’t something I could accept. Angels? Beings of goodness and light? Reed Taylor was playing me. That was easier to accept than the idea that maybe there were angels and they appeared to random junkies, but they didn’t appear to me. How many times had I asked, no,
begged
for something beautiful in my life to take the horror away?

“It isn’t something I earned,” he said, like he could read my thoughts.
This was uncomfortable for him. He didn’t seem like a guy who was used to sharing.

“I didn’t earn this either,” I told him, and looked away.
The things I had seen, they were just…wearying.

He swallowed hard, rubbed his fingers absently over his scarred arms.
“I didn’t know how to deal with it when I was a kid. You know. Seeing things nobody else saw. Everybody thought I was…”

I glanced at his scars and was surprised to feel my anger being replaced with understanding.
I reached out and took his fingers, held them loosely. He held my gaze and slowly slid his hand fully into mine. Nothing more needed to be said.

Chapter Eleven

I was
viciously pulling weeds in the garden when a demon came sauntering by.

“Remember me
?” it called out cheerfully.

“Whatever,” I said.
“You all look the same.”

It edged closer
. “I told you not to go into that restaurant. Should’ve listened, huh?”

I narrowed my eyes and gave a particularly stubborn weed a good, hard yank.

“Luna. We need to talk. I’m not going to go away until we do.”

I turned and threw the weed at it.
It sailed right on through. “Oh, all right. What do we so desperately need to talk about, demon? I’m busy here.”

The demon
tsked
sarcastically, and I felt my muscles tense.

“Poor baby,” it said, and flopped down on the grass.
“Listen. You’re going to be in a boatload of trouble soon. I’m talking serious, serious trouble. Dig?”

I attacked another weed.
“You’re threatening me, now? Typical.”

The demon sighed and leaned back, staring at the sky.
“That’s the thing about you people. You always expect the worst. Why can’t I be doing you a favor? Why can’t I be your friend?”

My muffled snort didn’t seem to faze it.
It kept on talking,

“You don’t know what it’s like to constantly be the buzzkill.
I mean, come on. A demon walks into a party and…it’s like a bad joke, right? I’m not like that. I’m not like everybody else. It’s not my fault.”

That did it.
I turned to face it, my eyes burrowing into its orbs of blackness. “It’s not your fault? What are you, demon? Think you’re an angel that lost his way? I don’t think so. Demons are demons because they chose to be so. Either you made the choice recently, or you made it long ago. Doesn’t matter to me. I don’t deal with evil if I don’t have to.”

The demon surged to its feet, wispy robes blowing in a wind created by rage.

“You don’t know anything about me!” it hissed. “You think you’re so savvy, but do you know what I see? A scared little girl. I terrify you. We terrify you. And you’re right to be afraid. We—”

I interrupted.
“Are you going to start in on that ‘We are legion’ thing now? Please. I see you guys every day of my life. You don’t help anybody. Why would you suddenly warn me of trouble, unless you wanted to see me crumble under the anticipation of it?”

“You need to trust me.”

“Want me to trust you? Then tell me your name. Give me that power. How’s that for trust, huh?”

It was silent.

“I thought so.” I stood up.

“Luna, halt!” it shouted after me.
Its voice had deepened and darkened to the commanding voice of death, but I didn’t turn around.

“Save it,” I said
and pulled my gardening gloves off of my hands. I opened the kitchen door and stepped inside.

“Luna!” screamed the demon.
Its voice had changed again, high and desperate. The Marks between my shoulder blades began to tingle. “Luna!”

The kitchen door slammed.
I could still hear the demon shrieking my name, so I went upstairs and turned on the radio. I lay on my bed and stared at the ceiling for a while, but when that refused to calm me, I picked up the phone to call Reed Taylor.

“’Sup?” he said.
Just the sound of his voice made me smile.

“Hi,” I said.
“How are things with you and your invisible presence?”

He laughed.
“Good. We’ve been working out in the yard.”

“So was I. You mean to tell me that you’re a tidy guy?”

“Almost fanatically tidy. If you ever see weeds at my place, call for help, because something's wrong.”

The demon squalled outside.

“Hey,” Reed Taylor said. “Demon Patrol is kind of bored and wants to go to the store or something.” There was a beat. “You want to go to the store or something?”

A shadow fell across the room.
I turned to see the demon glaring through the window, still calling my name. He couldn’t see me, but it didn’t make it any less disconcerting. He was two stories above the ground, and that was just creepy.

“Reed Taylor, you have no idea.
Meet me at the corner in fifteen.”

I reapplied my lipstick, ran out to the garage, and hopped on my bike.
I was strapping on my helmet when the demon appeared in front of me.

“You’re a frustrating person,” it informed me.

“What? I can’t hear you. I have this big helmet on.”

“You can so hear me.
I’m not stupid, you know.”

“Sorry,” I said, and gave an exaggerated shrug.
“Helmet on, demon’s voices tuned out.”

It opened its mouth to say something else, but I flipped the bike on, turned the key and revved the accelerator.
I backed out of the garage without another word.

It was a pleasant little drive, and I hummed a little as I playfully swerved down the winding streets.
Demon or no demon, I was off to see Reed Taylor and his little angel, and that just made my day.

He was parked at an old drugstore situated on a corner.
Nice place with an old fashioned soda fountain and ice cream parlor. They also had just what I needed.

I hopped off my bike and Reed Taylor hopped off his.
He turned his gorgeous eyes on me.

“So.
Whaddya wanna do?”

I smacked my lips.
“First we’re getting a soda. Then I’m going to fix your hair.”

He frowned.
“My hair? What’s wrong with my hair?”

“Oh, Reed Taylor, don’t ask
.”

We shared a root beer float, much to the delight of the old people who hung around the counter. Charming, we. Then we headed to the back wall
in the pharmacy.

“I don’t belong in here,” Reed Taylor said.
He eyed the boxes and bottles suspiciously.

“Trust me, my friend.
You’ll be stunning by the time we’re done. What do you think about me. Black with, what, purple tips?”

“B
lue tips. And how do you know how to do this stuff?”

I handed the stuff to the cashier and winked at Reed Taylor.
“Told you I was a jack of all trades.”

He laughed.
“What, you graduated beauty school?”

“Nope.
Dropped out during the last semester. They wouldn’t let me wear my combat boots on the floor, and those heels were killing me.”

Suddenly I gasped and my legs nearly gave out.
The Tracing between my shoulder blades was on icy fire.

“Luna!
What’s wrong? What can I do to help?”

Reed put his arms around me and tried to steady me.
I bit my lower lip.

“My back,” I said.

He ran his fingers over the M
ark. “It’s cold. I can feel it even through your shirt. What does that mean?”

I glanced out of the win
dow and growled. “It means the demons have shown up. They’re on our bikes.”

I stomped past Reed Taylor and blew through the front door.
A demon was clambering around my bike, trying to wrap his filmy hands around the handlebars.

“Hey!” I shouted, and stormed over there.
I put my hands on my hips. “What do you think you’re doing?”

The demon didn’t answer.
A second demon wandered over and peered into my rearview mirror.

“Off the bike!
Off! You can’t use it anyway, and you know it. Go!”

The demon tried to rest his feet on the pedals.
I was getting more and more steamed.

“Get off now, demon, or I’ll sic Reed Taylor’s
Demon Patrol on you, so help me.” I was so angry that my voice sounded perfectly calm. Reed Taylor stood quietly at my side, ready to pick up the pieces if I blew.

The demon looked at me lazily.
The bright spots of his eyes were drifting in his head. “I want it. I want to ride.”

I snorted.
“Yeah, well, I want it, too, and I didn’t choose the life of a demon, did I? I’m pulling rank.”

The demon didn’t budge, but
the pain intensified on the Mark. I tried not to gasp. The second demon ran its hands over my controls.

“Watch it, bud,” Reed Taylor said to
the demons he couldn’t see. “She’s really ticked.”

“You don’t want to get me started,” I began, but the demon’s head swiftly turned away from me.
I followed its gaze.

There
was the mouthy demon from this morning.

Great.

Mouthy demon breezed right past me. He said something to the other demons in a language that I didn’t understand. The demon on the motorcycle squeaked a question.

“
What’s going on?” Reed Taylor asked me.

I shook my
head. “I don’t know. I don’t speak Demonese.”

Mouthy
demon nodded. He pointed away from the bike.

T
he smaller demon shook his head and said something that sounded like a protest.
Mouthy demon roared in rage, and quite frankly I was taken aback. My fists were clenched at my sides. Mouthy demon scared me, I have to admit. The force and depth of his anger commanded a respect that I gave. Grudgingly, to be sure, but I gave it.

A
pparently he frightened the other two demons as well, because they zoomed quickly and obediently over the hillside.

I turned back to
mouthy demon. “You’ve got some chops, I’ve gotta say.”

He cast me a withering glance.
“You’re not going to thank me or anything?”

I hated to admit it, but he had a point. “Thank you, Mouthy Demon, for chasing them off of my bike.”

He preened. “Ain’t no thing. But you owe me. We’ll talk later.”

“Hey, I never said
—”

Mouth’s
eyes floated over to Reed Taylor, and he immediately bristled.

“What is he doing here?” Mouth hissed.
He advanced toward Reed Taylor, and I automatically stepped between them.

“What’s going on?”
Reed Taylor asked. He put his hand protectively on my shoulder. “What do you need me to do?”

“He’s here because he’s with me, Mouth.
Got a problem with that?”

The demon glared at
Reed Taylor standing behind me. “Are you kidding me? For real? Out of everybody on earth, you actually hooked up with this guy?” His dark eyes locked on mine. “What, are you attracted to trouble?”

“What’s wrong with him?”

“What’s wrong with who?” Reed Taylor demanded. He was getting impatient, stamping his steel-toed boots on the ground angrily. “You’re not talking about me, are you? Can demons even talk?”

Mouth rolled his eyes.
I caught the shine of them from inside his hood. “Can demons even talk. That’s rich. Hey, you!” he shouted, flowing past me and standing nose to nose with Reed Taylor. “Hey, you! Trouble! Yeah, you, big guy. Wake up and see what’s right in front of your face sometime, yeah? Then maybe you could be some help that way.”

The invisible presence beside Reed Taylor shimmered menacingly.
Mouth took a few steps back.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m backing
off,” he told the presence. “You know what I’m talking about, though, don’t you? If you have any sense, you’ll keep him away from her. She’s too important.”

It was my turn to be confused.
“Wait, what? Who are you talking about now? Me? You and Demon Patrol are having a conversation?”

Mouth threw his hands in the air.
“Humans are so frickin’ dense sometimes. Sheesh, Luna. You and this idiot,” he jerked a thumb at Reed Taylor, “need to get some awareness, you know what I’m saying? You’re all tooling around on your bikes, ga-ga eyed and thinking life is pretty darn sweet. Well, it isn’t going to be for much longer, and that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. You’re in serious, serious trouble, and you’re only making it worse by hanging around with this clown. Him. Sparkles. What is it with your family and bad news?”

“I’m not going to
ditch him.” Reed Taylor watched me intently as I answered, his beautiful green eyes flashing. “I’m sorta into this guy right now, and no demon is going to talk me out of it. You guys are all liars, anyway.”

Mouth’s
eyes narrowed. “Watch it, Luna. I’m going out on a limb to try and help you here.”

I yawned.
“Whatever.”

Reed Taylor turned toward the invisible presence.
He nodded. He turned back to face the demon, his eyes scanning the air for something he wasn’t able to see. “My friend here says you aren’t lying, demon. He says something big is up. Why are you trying to help us?”